‘Home-based care can help in rehabilitation of patients with spinal cord injuries’

Developing countries should have guidelines for treating spinal cord injuries and should focus on home-based care, said Dr Humberto Cerrel Bazo, an expert in the field of spinal cord related rehabilitation from Italy, on the second day of the WCNR 2018

Developed countries have adopted a good healthcare delivery system, but when it comes to rehabilitation, developing countries like India lags behind in providing efficient rehabilitation services to the patients, “While expressing my opinion at one of the forums here in India, I had mentioned that there are differences of treatments in different parts of the world. There is need to have guidelines in all the countries for treating spinal cord injuries,” said Dr Bazo.

As per him, it took 3,500 years to start treatment for spinal cord injuries. “Around 3,500 years ago, an Egyptian priest while mentioning about spinal cord injuries had said ‘it is an ailment which should not be treated.’ “

“Many car accidents and so on are leading to spinal cord related injuries. The cost to take care these patients is high. We need to protect the loss that these injuries cause. There are three types of countries – developed, developing and under developed. When it comes to India, it is a country which has all the three types present in it. Indian specialists are also not behind when it comes to dedicated research and specialised treatment facilities. We are going to see positive change in India,” he added.

“Many experts working in the field of spinal cord injuries showcased innovative measures and exercises, to treat spinal cord injuries. There is no need to go for high-end robotic surgeries and robot assisted therapeutic exercises. There are many therapies which should be applied in the beginning so that the patient recovers better,” he said.

For speedy recovery of the patients, Dr Bazo emphasised on home-based care. “If families of the patient are trained, it will help in curing the patient with low cost techniques. Educating people and making them aware about the rehabilitation techniques when it comes to spinal cord related injuries is vital. Also, there should be a good team of doctors who understands the needs of patients and problems that patients suffer. While rehabilitating patients, all these things should be considered by the doctors,” he added.